VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI visited his former butler, Paolo Gabriele, in his cell in the Vatican police barracks this morning, personally telling the butler he was forgiven and was being pardoned.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the pope had wanted “to confirm his forgiveness and to inform him personally of his acceptance of Mr. Gabriele’s request for pardon.”

The Vatican described the pope’s visit and the pardon as “a paternal gesture toward a person with whom the pope shared a relationship of daily familiarity for many years.”

Gabriele has been in the cell for almost two months after being found guilty of aggravated theft for stealing and leaking private Vatican documents and papal correspondence.

Sentenced to 18 months in jail, Gabriele began serving the sentence Oct. 25.

The 46-year-old Gabriele, who worked in the papal apartments from 2006 until his arrest in May, has been barred from further employment at the Vatican. He, his wife and three young children have been living in a Vatican apartment, but will have to move now that he is no longer employed by the Vatican, Father Lombardi said.

The day Gabriele began serving his sentence, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, said Gabriele’s crime caused damage to the pope and to the universal church.

By stealing private correspondence to and from the pope, and other sensitive documents, and by leaking them to an Italian journalist, Gabriele committed “a personal offense against the Holy Father,” the cardinal wrote.

His actions also “violated the right to privacy of many people; created prejudice against the Holy See and its different institutions; created an obstacle between the communications of the world’s bishops and the Holy See; and caused scandal to the community of the faithful,” he wrote.

Gabriele’s lawyer had told an Italian newspaper in July that Gabriele had written “a confidential letter to the pope,” asking for his forgiveness and telling the pope he had acted alone.

Gabriele had told investigators that he had acted out of concern for the pope, who he believed was not being fully informed about the corruption and careerism in the Vatican. He had repeated the claim at his trial.

Father Lombardi also told reporters that Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer technician in the Vatican Secretariat of State who was found guilty of obstructing the Gabriele investigation and given a suspended sentence, has returned to work in the Secretariat of State. A full pardon also is expected for him, Father Lombardi said.

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Added to the scandal was the report of “corruption” in the Vatican which one priest in Ireland referred to in an online homily, leaving it wide open as to what “corruption” meant- it was obviously the jockeying for power as Jesus experienced among the apostles and has never left that College since. BXV1 has spoken out about “clericalism” a lot and displays absolutely none of it in his demeanor ever, despite his exalted role.